1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a technique for delivering advertisements through the Internet to users, and more particularly, to an advertisement system on the Internet wherein detailed advertisement information associated with advertisement banners can be delivered to users easily and unobtrusively by e-mail.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of web pages on the Internet now carry advertisement banners. When an end-user clicks on an advertisement banner on a web page, the end-user terminal is connected to a server hosting the web page of the advertiser which owns the banner, and the server then enables an end-user to view a copy of the page that is linked to the banner at the end-user's terminal. Although an end-user simply needs to click on an advertisement banner to receive advertisement banner-linked contents, there inevitably will be times when an end-user is unable to follow such a link and view an advertiser's page. Not only is it time consuming to follow a link to a page and then view the contents, it is also intrusive for a viewer. Consequently, certain situations will preclude an end-user from following a banner link, such as participation in a chat room, participation at a game site, computer use at the workplace, and so on. Thus, although an end-user may wish to view a page that is linked to an advertisement banner, the end-user may be constrained from doing so. Such constraints represent a potential loss of business for the owners of advertisement banners. In addition, there will always be a case when an end-user, although not constrained from viewing an advertisement banner linked page, would rather not do so at the time the banner appears, preferring to delay such activity until some later time.
Conventional advertisement systems that are employed on the Internet, however, are unable to cater to the needs of users who are either constrained from viewing or disinclined to view advertisement banner-linked contents at the time an advertisement banner appears.